Tom Storer

And what Shawn and Sinton are saying is that saying "I play jazz" means "I am repulsive, weird, and you're probably going to want to go home early"... to 98% of the music-buying public. In other words, even if you think that people would agree you play jazz, you should avoid mentioning it and hope they don't notice.

I stumbled across a very cool French-Canadian drummer/composer on the improv/musique contemporaine side of things: Isaiah Ceccarelli (no relation to the swinging French drummer André Ceccarelli). I got both of his CDs available on eMusic and recommend them both: Bréviaires d'Epuisement has vocalists and clarinettists and Ceccarelli's percussion; the vocal pieces are sometimes reminiscent of early church vocal music, and the overall atmosphere is one of calm reflection despite the (comparatively) unorthodox sounds and textures that also appear. Here's a pretty good review of it: http://www.squidsear.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=1296 His other CD on eMusic is called Lieux-Dits, featuring two reeds, guitar, bass and drums. There's a bit more "jazzy" feel to parts of this but many other things as well. Eclectic, fun, serious. Lieux-Dits is from 2006, Bréviaire d'Epuisement is from this year. Both on the Ambiances Magnétiques label. Poking around on Google, I see there is a strong avant-jazz scene in Montreal. Further investigation is in order.

Sorry, butchered it somehow in the original message. Now corrected there.

I know the debate about whether to call jazz "jazz" or not has been done to death. Nevertheless, saxophonist Josh Sinton has an admirably frank blog post about it. http://joshsinton.com/2011/06/12/the-j-word-or-bye-bye-jazz-w/ http://joshsinton.com/2011/06/19/the-j-word-redux/ His basic point of view is that the label "jazz" effectively places musicians in a scorned ghetto roped off for uncool, pointy-headed intellectuals, regardless of the content of the music so labeled. But he also says other things which he then glosses over somewhat, such as "jazz culture is not what could be termed a nurturing culture" for its practitioners. And this: "I don’t feel wanted, needed or necessary to jazz, its traditions or its current culture. I’ve met some lovely people and played with some astounding musicians, but none of that stems from being called a 'jazz' musician. That’s just getting lucky." Sinton plays in the diverse, hard-to-sublabel area of "jazz" that rarely if ever involves straight-ahead swing, jazz standards, and rhythm changes: not in the Marsalis wing. I wonder if his exasperation and disappointment are directly related to the Marsalisite/non-Marsalisite division in the jazz world, or if that division is an effect of the same causes rather than the cause itself. I'd like to hear the testimony of working musicians, if possible. Is Sinton just a bitter crank or have things passed a point of no return for many musicians we would call "jazz musicians" by default but who find themselves ill served by the name? (Note: cross-posted on another forum)

Whisky isn't like wine--it doesn't mature in the bottle, getting better (or worse) over time. What matters is how long it was aged before it was bottled. A 12-year-old whisky remains a 12-year-old whisky no matter how long you keep it around before opening it. Admittedly, 100 years in the ice is outside the usual parameters and who knows what the effect might be... but I don't think it can be assumed that the whisky would taste any better than if it had been opened and drunk a century ago.

Damn. I miss all the fun.

Careful, if you get that one rolling we'll all start in relating our quirks, and this would soon be the world's longest thread!

I like Scofield's trio records with Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum, or, in later years and currently, Swallow and Bill Stewart. I also like the quartet records with Joe Lovano.

Thanks for that link, Big Wheel. Puts things in perspective:

I guess we all have our quirks.

I heard the latest and it didn't thrill me, I must say. I love Sco live, but lots of his albums strike me as less than full-strength... all concept, little warmth. "A Moment's Peace" isn't bad--with a band like that it's clearly at quite a high level--but it didn't sound inspired. Your mileage may vary. But I'd see them live if they came through town.

It was a "style point" decision made long ago & far away. Maybe you wanted us to feel warmer & fuzzier by replying to JSngry rather than jsngry, or you were signifying that you're somehow more "personal" or something... maybe you were valiantly resisting the cold impersonal digital world.

I recently ordered Craig Taborn's solo CD on ECM, Avenging Angel... and a new one by Aaron Goldberg with Guillermo Klein that looks promising...

Yeah, in some cases it can make the name easier to read, things like FredDietz@blah.com rather than freddietz@blah.com. That said, there are lots of people who don't understand that email addresses are not case-sensitive.

Like GA Russell indicated earlier, it's up to the prosecution to convince the jurors not that the defense theory is ridiculous, but that the prosecution theory is airtight. It's not enough that the defendant is very likely to have been somehow involved in either the death or some weird coverup. If you charge someone with capital murder you have to present convincing evidence that that person actually did the murder. The defendant might be a bad person, a liar, an unnatural mother who partied instead of mourning. That may be a crime in many people's eyes, but it's not the same crime as murder. Again, juries don't pick between "proven innocent" and "proven guilty," they pick between "proven guilty" and "not proven guilty."

Last Friday I saw Will Vinson at the Sunset in Paris. He's a British alto saxophonist from New York, and he was playing with Laurent Coq (excellent French pianist subbing for guitarist Lage Lund), Sean Fasciani on bass, and Jochen Rueckert on drums. I've seen Vinson before in Ari Hoenig's quartet. I've always liked him but I didn't realize quite how good he's become. He played his own compositions plus a standard or two and a couple of Monk tunes. He has a very charismatic personal tone, and swings hard while playing imaginative lines over rich and complex tunes. He sounded very spontaneous and well prepared, always the right combination, and managed to be always lyrical but with depths at time sardonic and edgy. I had a great time and will be picking up his CDs--I think he has two out now. He has personality... not your average modern jazz A-student with polished skills and no identity. Keep an eye out for him.

Nash has long been part of the straight-ahead elite, in my view. I've seen him numerous times over the years, starting from when he was with Betty Carter at the start of his career; also with Ron Carter and of course Tommy Flanagan's trio. Always a delight, always swinging.

Personally, I don't see much point in over-earnest analysis of Woody Allen films at this stage of his career. He's been repeating himself for years. Still, I go see his movies as they appear, because I enjoy their warm, relaxed charm and light humor. So I saw "Midnight in Paris" but was disappointed, even though I don't demand much of them. I didn't get the impression that he or the actors made much of an effort with it. This time the whole thing felt sort of phoned in. Oh well. You can't win 'em all. I'll still go see his next one.

My wife is Irish and grew up drinking strong black tea with milk. Think English Breakfast tea, or as they call it there, Irish Breakfast tea. She converted me to it. Years later, she visited China and came back bearing green teas and oolongs. Now that's about all we drink. The good ones are expensive but very generous, in that you can easily get three or four pots out of the same leaves. Green tea is also a good way to make Chinese-style iced tea. You take a big bottle or jug, put in some tea leaves, fill it with cold water and put it in the refrigerator overnight. You end up with delicately flavored cold tea with a light green color, nothing like the orange-red iced Darjeeling or, even worse, the commercial varities. I drink the odd espresso from the office coffee machine but it's not very good. I'm in the States now for a couple of weeks' vacation and have had occasion to meet people at Starbucks. I just order a tall Americano and each time am astounded at how revolting it is. Next time I'll try something else.

A few days ago I saw a Paul Motian "Tribute to the MJQ" band at the Village Vanguard. Motian, Steve Nelson, Craig Taborn, and Thomas Morgan on bass. As you could guess, it was not a slavish imitation. It was like the MJQ in a funhouse mirror. And it was good!

I loved "Free Jazz" the first time I heard it, and still do. I love the rich double rhythm section, the mix of personalities among the horns, the whole free-association liberty of the thing. I would take it to the desert island (but not "Ascension").

The recent "Captain Black Big Band" album is getting lots of attention from reviewers. That and several other Evans CDs are available on eMusic.

Ethan Iverson was impressed by Solal's technique but miffed that Solal seemed to diss Monk as "not a serious pianist." Iverson's grumblings are here.

Back around the turn of the 80's I saw Olu's band the Okra Orchestra a couple of times. At first they had Threadgill and Craig Harris, Jean-Paul Bourrelly and Coster Mossamba, don't recall the bassist, and they played a gorgeous, lilting, down-home, Delta cum Carribean vibe, rarely going very far outside that groove. After a while he made it a louder, funkier affair, with electric bass, much more a party band. I believe I recall Greg Bandy on drums. Both versions were fantastic. If they had ever recorded I'm sure it would now be considered a classic. I've never even seen a torrented boot of the Okra Orchestra from those days, and goodness knows you can find torrented boots of just about anything at all.

I think I probably do get Zappa, and that's why I don't like him. But Zappa's many fans are fiercely loyal so I tread carefully.